


The Low Sky

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 6 Voltron Members, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Another Member Of Voltron, F/M, Falling In Love, First Love, First Meetings, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, My First Work in This Fandom, Outer Space, POV Original Character, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Teen Romance, idk I really like it please read, pls dont hate me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-19 14:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 18,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9445433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: An AU where there's 6 members of Voltron.Soulmate AU where soulmates are born with matching tattoos.I'm so sh*t at summaries. I'm rly proud of this fanfic and idk pls read???





	1. The End

**A very short paragraph to warm up my story, following chapters will be a LOT longer. Sorry!**

I was very vaguely aware of voices as I woke up from sleeping. The moment I realised I could hear Lance and Hunk in my room I was immediately pissed.

"Oh come on, Lance - leave her alone." Hunk sighed

"Oh, but she looks so cute when she's sleeping." Lance chuckled "I might just have to take a picture."

"You do that McClain and I will sever your arms clean off." I said flatly, opening one eye to see them leaning over my bunk in the Garrison. The who of them screeched like girls, Lance practically leaping into Hunks arms.

"Geh! You're awake?!" he stammered.

"Good observation skills you have there." I sat up sleepily, brushing down my hair "to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Breakfast ends in 10 minutes." Hunk dropped Lance on to the floor "and we have our simulation today, thought you'd need your strength."

"Thank you, Hunk." I yawned with a smile in the boys direction.

"Hey!" Lance said, jumping off the floor "it was my idea too!"

"Thank you, Lance." I rolled my eyes sarcastically "now please get out so I can change."

"I swear, Lena, I do too much for you." he grinned and I went to kick him in the shin but he dashed from my room, Hunk sighing and following him - letting the door click shut behind him. I sighed and turned to my case, my bones still aching from the day of combat training the day before. Sure, Lance strived in shooting, Pidge could get us out of anything with a toothpick and 5 minutes of his time and I would kill a man for one of Hunk's chocolate chip cookies (I guess his engineering skills as well but they were less important). But none of them could ever pin me in combat. I stretched my arms above my head as I got dressed, letting the bones off my spine audibly crack as I did so. I grabbed my usual black clothing, pulling on clunky boots I liked to give me another inch or so of height. I was barely two inches taller than Pidge. Sure, he didn't give a shit about his height and no one really questioned it. However, the amount of times Lance rested an elbow on my head made me so pissed off.

I caught sight of my soulmark in the mirror as I pulled off my shirt and sighed. I'd never particularly liked it, it was almost tribal looking but at the sae time looked like wings and spread in deep, blood red swirls over my shoulder blades. I'd always been jealous of people with nicer tattoos. Pidge's was exceptionally beautiful, what looked like vines and leaves stretching the expanse of his right arm. Lance's was small but pretty, looked like water and water in a circle around both his ankles. Hunk's was like mine, huge and Tribal looking but his spread over both pf his forearms and he could pull off the manly tribal. I stared at the initials at the bottom of the tattoo. K.K.   
  
I yawned again as I walked into the mess hall, teenagers and cadets milling around and there was loud chatter. I piled my plate with whatever space goo they were serving today and made my way over to the table where I saw my three crew mates. I was Lance's co-pilot. A term he never ceased to rub in my face. I should probably tell you Lance and I grew up together, family friends since birth meant the boy way practically my brother and liked to use that an excuse for his constant teasing. However, if anyone other than him even looked at me wrong he usually went off on one. Pick your battles I guess. In all honesty, I didn't even mind being Lance's co-pilot. We had polar opposite personalities and tended to even each other out in stressful situations. In complete honesty, he was my best and closest friend.

"Morning." I said vaguely as I took a seat next to Pidge, who's nose was already in a book. Probably last minute cramming for the simulation today.

"Just." he chuckled, looking up from his book.

"I don't need your sass, Pidge." I grinned and he chuckled, turning back to his book.

"Honestly though Lena, how did you even sleep that long?" Hunk asked

"Unless absolutely necessary, unconsciousness is always preferable." I shrugged

"Somethings never change." Lance smiled and I kicked him under the table as I spooned space goop into my mouth. I managed a good few mouthfuls until our cadet group was called and I pouted as I stood up, throwing out the rest of my food and following my team mates to get suited up, pulling my blonde hair up and off my neck and into a bun. I stood with them as we pulled on flight suits.

"You know what gentleman." I addressed them, the three of them looked at me "I think we're gonna go pretty well today."

It made me happy to see the three of them smile, until we were picked to be first up and we all trudged halfheartedly into the simulation pod.


	2. A Bad Escape

""I think we're gonna do pretty well today, gentlemen!"" Lance muttered sarcastically as I walked with him and Hunk to find Pidge.

"Oh, just drop it, jerkface." I shot him a look "it was your fault we crashed anyway."

"Was not!" Lance shot back like a child and I shot him a death glare.

"We shouldn't be doing this, full stop." Hunk said in his usual panicked tonne as we crept round a corner. He was 100% correct and I don't now why I was going along with another one of Lance's ideas but here I was, sneaking out with them.

"You heard the commander, we're gonna grab Pidge and sneak out -a have a night on the town meet some nice girls. Do some bonding as a team." Lance grinned as we snuck down another hallway as the two of them continued to bicker about how much of a dumb idea this was. I just followed behind, I had a good tactic of when Lance's plans went South of making a break for it and not getting caught. I'd learned my lesson getting yelled at enough when we were kids that his plans usually didn't pan out. As we reached Pidge's room we frowned as the doors opened and he snuck out, carrying a huge bag on his back.

"What do you suppose Pidge is up to?" I smirked to the two of them. Lance grinned at me and we followed him. On the other hand, I was equally as sneaky as Lance and when we worked together, both curiosities peaked. Stuff went right. We followed Pidge towards the doof where we watched him set up a load of equipment near the solar panels. We watched for a while and I exchanged a look with and he grinned. We walked out from where we were hiding and over to Pidge, who was absorbed in his equipment. Lance just gently pulled one of his headphones from his ears.

"You come here to rock out?" he asked and Pidge let off a shriek of shock "oh.. Lance.. Hunk.. Lena.. no, um, just looking at stars..."

"Where did you get this stuff?" I crouched down beside him "it doesn't look like Garrison tech?"

"I built it." he smirked triumphantly at me "with this, I can scan the entire galaxy."

"All the way to Kerberos?" Lance said and I shot him a look. I knew there must be a reason Pidge got so pissy when it was mentioned and I thought it better not to ask "come on Pidge, if we're going to bond as a team we shouldn't have secrets."

Pidge sighed "Fine... listen, the world as you know it is about to change. The Kerberos Mission was not brought down due to a pilot mistake.. so I've been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter..."

"Aliens?" I raised my eyebrow

"Okay, so you're insane." Lance nodded flatly "got it."

"Lance!" I snapped

"I'm serious." Pidge deadpanned "they keep repeating one word -Voltron.... tonight it's going crazier than I have ever seen it."

"How crazy?" Lance said sceptically, only to be cut off by the loud speaker blaring one of our commanders ordering the students to stay inside and that the whole garrison was on lock down.

"What's going on?" Hunk said "I-s that a meteor?" the three of us turned to where he was pointing and my eyes widened to see what looked to be a huge, red comet falling from the sky.

Pidge grabbed a pair of binoculars "it's a ship! It's one of theirs!" I watched with eyes wide as it crashed into a rock just off the Garrison building. My heart was thundering in my chest. Actual real life aliens existed? And were here?!

"We gotta see that ship!" Pidge was positively excited, Lance and I exchanged a glance, silently agreeing and running after him. It took us nearly an hour to get over to where the ship had crashed down and for Pidge to set up all his equipment again, I was watching in wonder through a pair of his binoculars. It was hard to believe, sure we saw it in old Sci-Fi movies all the time but this was an actual real life alien ship right in front of us and it was amazing.

"Hey, they set up a camera in there - I just got it's feed." Pidge broke the silence and we all looked over his shoulder to see what he was looking at. On the screen was a man strapped to table, men it white suits around him.

"Calm down, Shiro!" one of the men around him spoke "we just need to keep you quarantined until we run some tests on you."

"You have to listen to me!" the man said in a tone of sheer panic "They destroy worlds! Aliens are coming!"

"That's Shiro!" Lance said in awe "he was the Pilot of the Kerberos mission. That guy's my hero!" We watched silently as Shiro babbled, our interest peaked when he mentioned the word "Voltron" again.

"We have to get him out." Pidge said, his eyes blown wide as we watched the men try to put Shiro under suddenly interrupted by a huge explosion to our left and I grabbed Lance's forearm out of sheer shock. My heart leaping into my throat.

"Was that the aliens?" Hunk wailed

"No!" Pidge said in amazement "that was a distraction, look!" we all looked down to see a guy jump off a rider after successfully luring the guards away with an explosion.

"No way!" That guy is not getting in there before me, he is always trying to one up me!" Lance said

"Who is it?" I dashed after Lance

"Keith!" he snapped and I sighed heavily. I'd never even met Keith in my life but I sure knew way too much about him with how much Lance complained about him. Pidge and Hunk ran after us as we headed for the base. We only made it in about 30 seconds after Keith, lance in a state of absolute determination not to be "undermined" anymore. As we made it to the door we saw Keith had already successfully got Shiro and was lifting him up.

"Nope! Nope! No you don't!" Lance stalked into the room and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes "I'm saving Shiro!" he grabbed Shiro's other arm to lift his unconscious body.

"Who are you?" Keith frowned and I bit back a laugh as Lance tried to explain who he was as the three of us stood in the doorway like sitting ducks.

"As nice as this reunion is." I interrupted "shouldn't we be making a run for it?"

"Right." Lance nodded and the two of them lifted Shiro and we made a dash for the exit. Man we were really not thinking through our actions. As we made it out we could see the guards were coming back and they didn't look to amused by our ploy. I dashed after the other crazy people I'd found myself in this situation with. Keith lead us round a corner and to a space cruiser.

"Mind if we catch a ride with you?" Hunk said rhetorically as we all piled on anyway. Lance giving me a boost as yes, I was short. I grabbed Pidge's hand and yanked him up and on after me. As Hunk climbed on the whole thing tipped backward and my hand gripped Keith's shoulder to stop myself falling backwards and gasped as it sent lightning bolts up my arm.

"Is this even gonna fit all of us?" Pidge asked

"No." Keith shot back pissily but took off anyway. I was sat behind Keith as he did, wind blowing my hair off my face. The cruiser didn't exactly go fast, probably because all of us were piled on. Pidge was clinging to Shiro as Keith drove, the guards coming after us and fast.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Lance yelled

"We could toss out some non essential weight." Keith replied flatly and I snorted, his eyes flickered to me for a second and then back to in front of him.

"Oh right... wait!" Lance said and I chuckled under my breath

"Wait." I said, leaning over Keith's shoulder as he struggled to steer "Hunk, lean to the left!" he did as he was told and the cruiser suddenly darted to the left. I was standing up on the foot rests now, not really caring if I only just met Keith and gripped his shoulder to help his steer "Lean right!" I yelled and we shot over a cavern, one of the cruisers taking out another one. Only one on our tails now.

"Nice shooting, Lena!" Lance laughed as Keith steered us round a steep wall.

"I-is that a cliff?" Hunk stammered and I turned to where he was looking.

Keith smiled slightly "yep." and then revved the engine, I almost fell off the back as he suddenly jolted faster, I fell back into Pidge and almost knocked off Shiro too

"Sorry!" Keith yelled over his shoulder to me and I laughed

"That was so fun." I clambered forward as he drove for the edge of the cliff, the rest of them screaming for him to stop.

"Just shut up and trust me!" Keith shouted. For some reason I had absolute faith in this total stranger and nodded, hands gripping the chair as he threw us forwards off the cliff.

They all screeching as we fell free fall towards the rocks, at the last minute Keith pulled up and we flew forwards. I let off a laugh as he did.

"Okay, that was so much more fun." I laughed

"They're both insane." Lance said, his face slightly green as Keith drove into the night.

"At least we lost them." I said, looking back to where the guards were at the edge of the cliff, getting smaller and smaller into the distance.


	3. The Blue Lion

I stood with my arms folded as Keith explained his Beautiful Mind map on the wall, some ancient story about a Blue Lion. Shiro had only been awake for about 15 minutes at this point. I knew about as much as the average person did about the Kerberos mission he was a part of. A ship to one of Pluto's moons that went wrong due to a pilot error. My dad had been on one of the earlier flights to Hydra, a slightly bigger moon orbiting Pluto than Kerberos. He'd never made it back.

"I guess I should thank you for getting me out." he turned to the four of us "Lance, right?" he held his hand out to my friend, who warily shook his metal arm. He held his hand out to Pidge who was next to me.

"The nervous guys is Hunk. I'm Pidge." he smiled, shaking Shiro's hand. Shiro turned to me and I cocked my head slightly before holding out my small hand, it was totally swamped in Shiro's. I tried not to flinch as my skin met the cold metal.

"Lena." I stated, I could feel my legs getting weak at this point and I wavered slightly on them as Pidge asked Shiro about his mission. Lance looked at me with a slightly concerned expression. I'd had this condition since I was born, some imbalance of something in my brain. I'd never read too much into it but I had to take medication, I should be due it soon. The side affects of not taking it were pretty bad. I checked my watch, I should of taken them an hour ago. Though I did my best to listen, the gist of the situation being we had to find this weapon called "Voltron" before the big bad aliens did. We even had a location. Shiro telling us to "Get rest. We Leave in the morning."

"Lena," Lance said as my knees buckled slightly, grabbing my arm "are you alright?"

"Fine." I shook away my ningling headache "I just need some air." I stalked outside and sighed, desert air blowing around me. I reached into my bag and pulled out my pills, popping one into my hand and sitting down on the steps of the shack Keith was staying in and dry swallowing it. I smiled slightly as a cool breeze blew around me, my hair going into my face, I reached up and tucked the strands behind my ear. I turned as the door cracked open and I saw it was Keith.

"Hey." he said flatly and I almost rolled my eyes as he came and sat down a little away from me on the steps.

"Hi..." I said awkwardly to this guy I'd known for about an hour.

"Listen, thanks for your help with steering the cruiser." he said, looking out to the empty desert.

"Oh, no problem." I shrugged, thinking of something to say "I don't think we've ever met before, I'm Lena.. Corinth."

"We've met." Keith raised an eyebrow

"We have?" I chuckled awkwardly "I mean I know you went to the Garrison but I just thought we never had any classes together."

"You pinned me in combat?" he raises his eyebrows

"Honey, I've pinned a lot of people in combat." I grinned and he laughed weakly "sorry, I really don't remember."

"It's alright." he shook his head "it's Keith.. Kogane."

"Nice to meet you, Keith." I smiled, leaning back on my hands as another gust of wind blew around us. I felt oddly calm just having him sitting next to me.

x

"Woah, these are incredible." I breathed as we inspected the drawing on the walls of the cave after Hunk's machine lead us to where Voltron might be. I jumped backwards as they started glowing blue.

"They've never done that before." Keith raised his eyebrows, there was a sudden bright flash of blue light from below our feet and I couldn't help but screech as the ground gave way. My back made contact with freezing cold water as we slid straight down into another tunnel.   
The tunnel opened up all Goonies style into another cavern and we fell into a pool of water a few feet deep. My landing being softened slightly as my back slammed into Keith's chest. He coughed violently as I did, wheezing under me.

"God, sorry!" I peeled myself off him, standing up and holding my had out to him "are you alright?"

"Fine." he croaked, taking my outstretched hand I yanked him to his feet. As I did I noticed how his eyes were such a deep blue they were almost purple "Lena?" he frowned and I realised I hadn't let go of his hand and my face exploded with heat as I dropped it and jumped a foot away.

"S-sorry!" I spluttered, then turned as the others got to my feet. My eyes widened, my blood freezing in my veins when I saw a huge robotic lion surrounded by a particle barrier.

"Is this it?" Pidge appeared by my side "is this the Voltron?"

"This must be what's causing all the crazy energy around here." Keith tsepped towards it and I followed him "looks like it's got a force field around it."

"How do you reckon we get in?" I asked, as the 6 of us stopped by the force field, reaching a hand out to touch the barrier. It felt warm under my hand, sending a buzzing electric current up my arm.

"Maybe we just knock?" Lance grinned and me and I snorted halfheartedly as he knocked, jumping back as the whole barrier lit up before disappearing, the ground below us shaking and a pattern glowing on the floor, wind flowing through the tunnel and blowing my hair all over my face (and into my mouth). I gasped as my mind suddenly filled with the image of a robot, my whole vision going a bright purple as another robot in deep purple surrounded my sight. Showing that Voltron was made up of 6 different lions, not just this one blue one.

"Did everyone else just see that?" Lance said

"Voltron's a huge, huge awesome robot!" Hunk grinned

"This is only one part of it.." I said carefully "I wonder where the rest of them are?"

"This is what they're looking for." Shiro said, I jumped back as the thing moved, it's head leaning down and the mouth opening, a path way falling out in front of Lance. Who seemed to be in a trance as he walked forward and into the robot.

"Lance! Wait!" I ran after him, followed shortly by the others and we followed him into a control room where he sat down in the chair. As soon as he did the chair shot forward, the screens lighting up with controls and panels I didn't understand.

"I would just like to point out.." Hunk said "we are in a futuristic cat head right now."

I chuckled slightly then turned my attention to Lance as he gasped "are you okay?" I frowned

"Did you guys hear that?" he asked

"Hear what?" Keith frowned

"I.. I think it's talking to me.." Lance put his hands gingerly on the controls "alright. How about this?" he slammed his hands froward and the lion roared to life, sending my back and knocking into Shiro, Lance then went ever faster and I couldn't help but grab whatever was closest - which just happened to be Keith's jacket. Lance threw the lion into a corkscrew and I was so small and light my feet flew off the ground, Keith grabbed my waist before I slammed into the roof and I grabbed on to the back of his jacket with one arm and Shiro's metal forearm with the other. I would of blushed as his arm around me had I not wanted to throw up.

"You are..the.. worst.. pilot.. ever!" Keith managed to get out as Lance started doing flips.

"Lance, make it stop or I swear I'm gonna hurl!" I shouted

"I can't, it's like this thing is on autopilot!" Lance said as he evened out his flying. I released Shiro's arm, surprised I didn't dent the metal with how hard I was holding on. Keith seemed to realise his arm was around me and he retracted it quickly.

"S-sorry!" he looked away from me and I smiled slightly. _Shit, he's cute_.

"It says there's an alien ship approaching," Lance said as it shot upwards into the sky "I think it wants us to stop it!"


	4. Electric Storms

"Well." I said as I stumbled out the Blue Lion "that was intense... where are we?" I breathed as we looked at the castle in front of us "it's beautiful."  
The words barely passed my lips before the ground shook, the Lion roaring so loud it hurt my ear drums but the doors to the castle slid open when it was finished. We exchanged glanced before following Shiro in to the building, we came into what looked to be a huge hanger for ships. We came to a grand set of stairs and paused, a light above our head shining brightly down and I winced into the light.

"Please hold, for identity scan." a ethereal voice spoke and my eyes bugged as a pale blue light ran up my body. Before the lights turning on lead us down a corridor, it opened up into a brilliant white room with high ceilings, there were 6 sets of chairs and what looked like controls around a stage in the middle with what looked like the main controls.

"Looks like a control room." Pidge commented, stepping on to one of the sit controls, it lit up instantly and suddenly two stasis pods erupted from the floor, casting dry ice across the floor. One opened to reveal one of the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, her hair long and shining silver. She looked almost human despite strange markings on her face and elven ears. Her eyes flew wide to reveal icy blue irises.

"Father!" she gasped then suddenly collapsed forward. Lance lurched to catch her before she hit the ground. She groaned as she looked up at him, I saw a blush spread across his cheeks and I rolled my eyes as he greeted her flirtily.

"Who are you?" she frowned "where am I?"

"I'm Lance, and you're right here in my arms." he grinned

"Your... ears..." she looked at them with a frown

"Yeah?"

"They're hideous." she frowned, standing away from him and I choked back a laugh this time. She seemed to realise she was confused and she lurched, grabbing his arm and twisting it around his back. I could tell he was in pain as she gripped it.

"A giant blue lion brought us here! That's all we know!" he gasped out

"How do you have the Blue Lion! What happened to it's Paladin?" she released Lance "what are you all doing here?.. Unless.... how long has it been?"

"We don't know what you're talking about." Shiro said gently 

"Why don't you tell us who you are?" I smiled softly "maybe we can help?"

"I am Princess Allura of planet Altea." she said, looking at the 6 of us warily "I've got to find out where we are.. and how long we've been asleep..." she walked to the control panels, which lit up holographic screens as she put her hands down. I jumped as the other chamber opened, a boisterous man with ginger hair launched himself at Lance who just ducked slightly to avoid him.

"It can't be." Allura spoke, her eyes gone sad.

"What is it?" the new man spoke

"We've bee asleep for 10 thousand years!" she was shaking as she turned to the man "Coran, our whole solar system has been destroyed. Father, everyone is gone."

x

"Hey, Lena, are you alright?" Lance sat down next to me in the chamber as Allura was tracking down the other four Lions.

"Me? Peachy." I smiled at him. Truth be told I was scared as hell.

"You're a terrible liar." he chuckled, leaning back on his hands next to me.

"I'd say I'm pretty good, you just know me too well." I nudged him and he laughed 

"You're scared, aren't you?" he asked

"Never." I grinned, Lance smiled at me, unconvinced but knew better than to drill about it. Suddenly the room filled with beautiful constellation holograms and I breathed, standing up to get a better look as where each of the Lions were located. I was immediately drawn to a purple light, it was the furthest away and on a tiny planet that was clustered by rings. I turned as Allura explained that the Lions chose each of their pilots and why each of us were matched with a lion.

"Lastly, there's the purple lion." Allura spoke to me "Lena, you will pilot this lion. The Purple Lion resides in the heart of Voltron and forms it's wings. It's Pilot must be a driven and focused character, generous and willing to make sacrifices for a team." she made eye contact with me and smiled "I believe you are the beating heart of the team."

"Me?" I choked 

"Yes." she smiled 

"The girl faints at a paper cut and you think she's the blood pumper?" Lance said and I didn't hesitate to punch him in the arm.

"Once all the Lions are united," Allura continued, ignoring Lance's statement "they form Voltron, the most powerful Warrior ever known. The defender of the universe."

"Alright, we don't have much time." Shiro sighed "Pidge and I will go get the Green Lion. Lance, take Hunk and go get the Yellow Lion. Keith, go with Lena to find the purple Lion.. if you hear anything on the Red - go find it."

"Right." Keith nodded

Coran set up a pod for Keith and I, as well as Pidge and Shiro. Apparently the Purple Lion was located on a small planet that was surrounded by an electric cosmic storm. Which I had no idea what that was but it didn't sound pleasant. However, it was now totally derelict of life due to the storm the species inhabiting the planet were forced to migrate. The fact we had to get in, get the Lion and get out within two hours was mildly stressful but I strapped myself into the drivers seat on the pod. Keith only fussed slightly at not steering but took the engineer seat beside me after a moment and we were off.

"Here goes nothing." I sighed, steering the pod into the worm hole. It was quiet for a moment as we travelled but as soon as we got out the other side it was instant chaos.  
"Crap!" I cursed as we were immediately hit by the storm surrounding the planet. My eyes widened as the scene as dust battered against the window, huge purple lightning bolts shooting across the sky in front of me. I took in a deep breath through my nose and slammed on the thrusters. Despite Lance's teasing at my co-pilot stance I had lightning sharp reflexes and thrived in situations like this. I could see Keith gripping his chair with white knuckles beside me as I steered us through the storm. It only lasted a few minutes before we entered the gravitational field and the debris cleared.

"Well, that was stressful." I breathed as the planet came into view. It was vast wasteland, the ground was a burned up black colour and a cloud of dust expelled around us as I landed. 

"I can't believe we made it through that in one piece." Keith said, releasing his chair as I stood up. 

I chuckled as I walked for the door "I'm not that bad of a driver, Keith."

"Sorry, the only comparison I had from you guys was Lance." he said as we stepped off on to the planet, I instantly coughed a dust filled my lungs. The place was a total wreck, the ground was black and charred, the place reminded me of Earth moon. Just black. And with big storm clouds in the sky that shot purple lightning bolts. So not really all that much like the moon.

"I don't think our lungs are gonna last long here." I said, flicking open the tracking device given to my by Allura "let's do this fast."

"Right." Keith nodded as the machine beeped, telling me the Lion was ahead of us. The trek was awful, there were constant solar winds blowing dust into our eyes and lungs as we walked, eventually the machine lead us down into a ravine where we were protected from the dusk and I coughed, taking a breather to shake some from my hair.

"Hey, Lena." Keith said and I hummed for him to continue as we continued to walk "it's pretty obvious you're a better pilot that Lance..."

I chuckled at his statement "thanks?"

"So, why are you the co-pilot?" he asked, I stopped when he asked it - a little taken back by the abruptness of his question.

"Sorry, was that too personal?" he asked

"No." I shook my head, starting to walk again, I smiled over at him "you're just very blunt, it's kinda refreshing." he smiled slightly at my answer "it was always Lance's goal to be a pilot," I shrugged "not mine, so I kinda... crashed a couple exams to make sure he beat me."

Keith hummed thoughtfully as we walked, I gulped at the near 80 foot drop down to pitch black rock beside me "you really care about him , don't you?"

"I guess." I laughed 

"Are you guys soulmates or something?" he asked

"Lance and I?" I laughed "no, not at all. I've just known him since I was born. Our families are very close.. him and his family have done a lot for me."

"Okay, good." Keith said and I smiled 

"Good?" I cocked an eyebrow, turning to look at him but instead losing my footing slightly. Keith shot forward and grabbed my forearm to stop be falling 80 feet to my definite death and yanked me forward, this time making me trip completely and he caught me round the waist as I hit his chest.

"Thanks." I breathed, standing up straight. 

"No problem." he sighed, then looked at my hair. I felt my cheeks flush as he reached out and flattened down the front of my hair without really thinking. When his eyes dropped to meet my gaze he seemed to realise his actions and turned on his heel, his face going red as he marched further in the direction of the Lion. This time with my cheeks a little coloured I followed, watching the machine for a while longer.

"We should be right on top of it." I said, stopping abruptly and looking around. My eyes fell on a cave across the ravine "not ideal." I sighed, the edge wasn't too steep we could probably slide down "come on." I said and stepped over the edge, I used my heels to dig into the dust, as I slid a huge cloud of black smoke billowed behind me. Keith followed a minute later and we skidded to a halt in front of the cavern. 

"This is it." Keith spoke, tracing his fingers across one of the cave drawings, he turned to me and I sighed, walking over to the wall. I reached out my hand with some apprehension, was this actually going to work? I was nothing special why the hell would a Lion pick me? I reached out and touched the rock, it felt cold against my hand but as soon as my skin made contact the cave filled with a purple glow. Just like with the Blue Lion my stomach lurches as I felt the ground cave in below me. This time bracing myself just fine and not letting out a scream as Keith and I fell down what seemed to be a mudslide into a bigger pile of wet mud.

"Gross." I whined as it splashed into my hair "how the hell did Lance get water in his?"  
Keith chuckled as he got to his feet, mud splattered all over his clothes and on his face. Shit, he even looked cute covered in dirt. He held a hand out to help me up and I did. He was looking over my shoulder where the purple light that was illuminating the room was. I looked over my shoulder warily, my eyes widened as I saw a huge lion inside of a particle barrier.

"Woah." I breathed, walking over to it. I felt a kinda warm sensation as I looked at the amazing machine, I felt like it's eyes were following me as I stepped up to the particle barrier. I took a deep inhale through my nose before reaching out and touching the barrier. It instantly disappeared and I smiled. The Lion roared and I laughed as it leaned it's head down, it's mouth opening for me to get in. I grinned and ran inside, Keith following as I went for the control room. I warily sat down in the chair, as soon as I did it shot forward, screens and and controls flashing up in front of me and two joysticks appearing on wither side of me.

"Woah, this is amazing." I chuckled "h-hello... should I say hello? My name's Lena.. thanks for picking me.." I took the joysticks in my hands, a jolt of energy running into my body and it was like all the information on how to steer just flooded into my brain and I laughed

"Hold on." I smiled to Keith before slamming the thrusters on as hard as I could and making the lion shoot out of the cave ceiling


	5. Soulmarks

Keith and I were the last to return, the doors of the Castle's control room opening to show us all of the others had got back safe. 

"You made it!" Lance grinned, walking over - he went to hug me but the stopped abruptly "what the hell are you two covered in? Oh my god, it stinks!"

"Have we located the Red Lion yet?" I ignored Lance

"Allura just located it, good news it it's close by... bad news is it's on the Galra ship nor orbiting Eros.... that's us." Coran replied "they should be within orbit in a couple hours."

"Okay, everyone rest up.. we're going to need it." Shiro said 

"And you two take a shower." Lance turned his nose up and Keith and I.

"I can show you all to where you can sleep." Allura took her hands off the controls and walked towards us. The 6 of us all had bedrooms in the same corridor. My room was on the end nearest the bathroom and just beside Pidge. The room itself was pretty empty, just a bed and a desk was really all we had. I sighed as I walked out, a pair of clothes Allura had leant me in my hands, seeing Keith moving for the bathroom.

"I shotgun first in the shower!" I grinned, running and using Keith as somewhat of a leap frog, jumping over his shoulders and barging into the bathroom before me "you snooze you lose, Keith!" I grinned and he looked so bewildered but also like he might laugh as I slammed the door on him. 

The shower was very difficult to work but eventually I got it to flow hot water. The soap smelled like nothing on earth but it was heavenly, almost floral but not quite as I scrubbed every last inch of dirt off my body and hair. I stepped out feeling like a new human. I looked at the clothes Allura had left me. It was an all black what looked to be flight suit with areas of mesh. I frowned as I lifted it, this is what Alteans wore? Or did she just see my complete lack of colour fashion sense and picked what I might like? I pulled it on and smiled. Okay I totally liked it. The back was mesh to the small of my back with stripes of the same material on my thighs and calves. I went and opened the door and jumped when I saw Allura was about to knock.

"Oh, hello." she smiled "I thought I would ask if the clothes fit but I see you do."

"They do, thank you." I smiled, she handed me my dark purple leather jacket I never liked taking off.

"The dirt just brushed off." she said and I thanked her again, I turned to pull it over my shoulders.

"What odd markings," Allura commented "do all humans have those?"

"Huh?" I turned "oh, my soul marks? Yeah we all have them."

"Soul marks?" she asked

"Alteans don't have soulamates?" I asked

"No, I don't believe we do." she said, her interest peaked as we walked back for the control room "what are they?"

"Well, every human has their own unique markings." I explained "except one other person will have the same as you and they're your soulmate."

"A soulmate?" she frowned

"It's hard to explain." I chuckled "everyone on Earth has one person who completes them? Like, you're destined to find and be in love with this person? My dad used to tell me that he thought humans only had half a soul and your soulmate had the other half and when you meet, they become one." we entered the control room where the other Paladins were "when he met my mother he said it was like he'd lived his whole life in black and white and suddenly everything was in brilliant technicolor."

"That's beautiful." Allura breathed, she looked at my team mates "you all have these.. soulmarks?"

"Sure do." Pidge nodded, pushing up his sleeve.

"Have any of you met your soulmates?" she asked, inspecting Pidge's arm.

"Not yet." I smiled "I guess for me it might be harder, given my marks in a place usually covered, I mean as soon as any of you see your soulmate you're immediately gonna know." I laughed "I could of bumped into mine on the street and I still wouldn't know."

"Might I see them?" Allura asked us

"Well, mine are kinda obvious." Hunk laughed, his forearms covered in swirling patters. Lance yanked up the hems of his pants to show Allura. I was curious about Shiro's and he pulled up the bottom of his shirt to show two large, what looked to be feathers, inked by his navel.

"Mine's under my shirt." Keith sighed 

"No one wants to see that." Lance smirked

"What an interesting species you are." Allura said while ogling Hunk's arms "it just looks like your skin is coloured that way, are you born like that?"

"Yeah." I nodded

"That's romantic." Allura smiled at me "I hope I get to see one of you meet them, but you say you don't always know if you've met them?"

"Not always." I shrugged "apparently once you meet them your mark slowly changes colour to what colour they were born with and vice versa."

"So that means..."

"Well, mine is red but if I met my soulmate and his was blue - mine would turn blue as well. It can take a couple months though cause it's just the cells being renewed as you grow." I shrugged

"I don't think I've ever seen your soulmark, Lena." Pidge pondered.

"It's on my back so it's hard to see." I chuckled with a shrug, pushing my hands into my jacket pockets. I was interrupted by the screens behind Them flickering, all of us looking up as the kinda gross looking, purple faced alien appeared on the screen. 

"I am Sendak of the Galra planet - I come on behalf of Commander Zarkon." I stepped back out of habit "I am here to confiscate the lions. Turn them over to me or I will destroy your planet." the image disappeared and we stood in deafening silence for a moment.

Shiro eventually broke it "alright, let's not panic."

"Shiro's right," I nodded 

"This castle has a particle barrier we can activate." Allura spoke

"Girl, you've already activated my part-"

"Lance!" I snapped and he clacked his mouth shut.

"We just have to figure out a plan and figure it out quickly." Shiro ignore Lance

"Any ideas?" I asked, brushing my hair from my face "Allura, you know these Lions better than any of us, what do you think?"

"I... I don't know." she managed

"Perhaps your father can help." Coran said, she turned to him in confusion.


	6. Do You Trust Me?

"Your suits of armour." Allura spoke as the chamber lit up. My eyes sparkled at the suit in front of me, damn it looked cool.

"These are incredible." I breathed as the pod opened. 

Getting into the suit was an ordeal, the paces clicked apart and fitted together and it really was a two person job. After Pidge helped me with my chest plate I smiled, looking at myself in the mirror. The suit seemed to bend into the perfect shape for my body and I had to admit the black hips looked pretty damn good, giving me the look of more curves than I had. Not that I should be thinking about that right now... I turned to see Keith struggling with getting into the chest plate and smiled slightly.

"Here." I said, walking up behind him and taking the back plate and jet pack from him and holding it in place.

"Thanks." he said, clicking in the chest piece and turning around as Allura spoke, standing over V disk like objects.

"The bayard is the typical weapon of the Paladins of Voltron." she said, each of us reaching for the colour that went with out suit and Lion "it takes a distinct shape for each paladin. As soon as my hand touched it it transformed. I frowned at the thing in my hand, it was much the same but with a handle pointing out the back, as I lifted it to point into the corner of the room away from everyone the two sides snapped out and formed what looked like a bow.

"Cool." I smiled, grabbing the handle and pulling it back. The end of the bow lit up with bright purple light and I fired it into the corner of the room.

"Alright there, Robin Hood." Lance appeared at my side where his bayard had turned into a huge gun. As I lowered mine the sides snapped back in and I grinned, shit that was cool.

~

"That was far too easy to get in." I breathed as I walked through the Galra ship with Pidge, Shiro and Keith. Lance and Hunk were currently outside pretending to white flag while we tracked down the Red Lion. I stopped when Shiro let out a groan of pain, his breath suddenly laboured.

"Shiro? Are you alright?" I asked

"I've been here before." he frowned "after I was taken prisoner on Kerberos."

"So.. that means your other crew members might be held captive here? We have to rescue them!" Pidge said urgently

"Pidge.." Shiro said gently "we don't have time, we have to get the Red Lion and get back to Arus. Now let's get moving..."

"No!" Pidge snapped and I jumped "Commander Holt is my father. He and my brother were with you on the Kerberos mission and I have been searching everywhere for them! I'm not giving up looking when I'm this close!"

"Shiro." I said gently "why don't we split up, Keith and I can go in search for the Red Lion..."

"Yes, I remember where the Prisoners are held. I can't let you go by yourself, Pidge."

"By ourselves?" Keith asked Shiro

"Yes." he nodded, putting a hand on Keith's shoulder "remember, patience yields focus. So--" the doors beside us opened and my heart lept into my throat "run!" the four of us jolted into motion and I sprinted after Keith down the hallway away from Pidge and Shiro. We made it to a fork.

"Great." Keith sighed "now which way?"

"Just focus." I touched his arm "you just need to sense where it is."

"Right." he breathed through his nose, closing his eyes. After a moment he smiled "got it." and took off down a corridor. I smiled and dashed after him, he took a million different directions until we finaly made it into the room.

"Bingo." Keith smiled when we saw the Red Lion inside of it's particle barrier.

"Go, I'll cover the door." I said, letting my bow snap open and he nodded, running over to the Lion. I leaned out the door to a seemingly empty corridor. It didn't stay that way for long as 5 guards rounded the corner.

"Keith, I don't mean to rush you!" I called as they made a break for the door.

"Quiznak!" I cursed as they started shooting, Keith shot open his shield and I ducked behind it, aiming my bow and hitting one of the guards straight in the chest.

"Nice shot!" Keith commented "cover me!"

"You got it." I nodded and he charged for the guards with his bayard, mine being pretty useless at close combat, I stayed behind him as he charged for the guards, taking out three and I got another two. He took a shot to the armour and was knocked back.

"Keith!" I yelled, shooting the guard going for him and running over to check if he was okay.

"Do you trust me?" he said abruptly as I reached him

"What?" I frowned

"Quickly, do you trust me?" he held his hand out to me. I took it warily, confused by his statement.

"Yes..."

"Then don't let go." he said before slamming his hand into the button to open the landing bay doors. My eyes widened and my grip around his hand tightened as all the air was sucked from the chamber, the vaccum sucking on us as well. I groaned as I gripped Keith's hand, it was slipping slightly and I felt his fingers grip harder as his other hand desperately clung to the machine. My eyes widened as a piece of debris painfully slammed into my gut and I lost my hold on Keith's hand.

"Lena!" his voice came into my head gear as I was sucked out into space.

Suddenly something careered into me and I looked to see Keith had grabbed me round the waist and we were now floating out into deep space. I opened my mouth to say something but they widened as I saw the red Lion coming straight at us, it's mouth opened. As it closed around us we hit the floor with a thud as gravity was suddenly added back into the situation. I let out a noise of pain as Keith landed painfully on my chest.

"Ouch." I winced as he groaned in pain too "you're heavier than you look."

"Hey!" he said, pushing up on to his hands, as we made eye contact I blushed, suddenly realising the situation we were in he cleared his throat and stood off me, holding a hand out to help me to my feet. He went and sat down in the chair and it shot forward.

"Good kitty, now let's get out of here."   

"Mind giving me a lift to my own Lion?" I smirked, leaning on my hand on the back of his chair. He chuckled as he pushed the thrusters forward.


	7. The Heart of Voltron

I snapped awake suddenly to alarms blaring through the Castle Ship. Allura's panicked voice yelling throughout the place that Zarkon was attacking. I fell out of my bed in sheer fright, I hadn't slept particularly well the night before, dozing off sometime after 4. I snatched my bayard off the floor, not bothering to change out of the pyjamas Allura had given me. Which were somewhat of a romper with weird, metallic Altean patterns all over it. As I burst into the control room, my hair falling out of the messy bun I wore to sleep I saw there was no immediate danger and sighed. Everyone already present but Lance.

"So, I take it this isn't life or death?" I yawned, walking next to Keith and folding my arms over my chest. Well done, Lena. You forgot your bra. The doors behind me opened and Lance walked in, also in his pyjamas.

"Coran and I have been up for hours putting the castle back together and we had to test the alarms, we figured we'd test you as well." Allura sighed "guess which one failed?" she sighed again and went on to show us planets Zarkon had already conquered, my eyes widened seeing most of the room light up red. The Milky Way being one of the very few solar systems still blue. We all agreed that the situation was dire and if we didn't want Earth to be attacked we better work out how to form Voltron.

"Nice jammies, Lena." Lance leaned on my shoulder as Allura turned off the hologram and I didn't even pause before swinging round and slamming my knee into his back.

"Geh!" he winced.

"I thought we were under attack." I sighed "you're one to talk, you've still got face mask on your neck." he jumped and scrubbed at his neck and I laughed "got you."

"That's it!" Lance laughed and launched at me, grabbing me around the waist and throwing me over his shoulder like he did when we were 5 and started to spin round.

"Lance!" I shrieked with laughed "put me down, you jerk!"

"Sorry, can't hear you!" he grinned as I struggled to get lose, I could hear the other Paladins laughing at our odd display off affection at this point.

"Lance!" I gasped and he chuckled, putting me back down on my feet "you're a dead man, McClain." I pouted, crossing my arms across my chest.

"And I love you too." he ruffled my hair and I smiled, giving him a fond sort of shove.

"You guys seem close, have you known each other long?" Shiro asked

"Practically knew her while she was in the womb." Lance laughed, hooking an arm around my neck to noogie me.

"How I haven't murdered him yet is beyond me." I shoved Lance off me and they laughed, leaving the room. I moved to follow when I saw Keith wasn't with them. I turned to look at him and he was facing looking out at the view from the control room.

"Keith?" I frowned and he turned "you coming?"

He smiled at me slightly, turning to follow me "yeah."

~

"We finally did it." I laughed as we all headed to our rooms that night "only took us like 10 hours to work it out, gold star for us." The 5 of them laughed, all of us in equal states of exhaustion after an entire day of trying to work out how to form Voltron.

"Night guys!" Pidge yawned as the door closed behind him, the 6 of us grunted in response and I smiled, turning into my own room and letting the door close behind me. I climbed out of my armour and into my pyjamas, falling back with a "flump" on to my mattress. I reached under my pillow and pulled out the photograph there. I smiled at the image of my dad and me as a toddler in his arms.

"I hope your proud." I whispered, pushing it back under my pillow and tucking myself up into the blankets. I fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.

I only got a few hours sleep before a nightmare tore me from the peaceful restIi had been having. A scream ripped out my mouth as I jumped awake, sitting bolt upright in my bunk. I groaned, clutching at my head as I flicked the lights in my room on. I sighed as I shivered into the cold of the room, dithering in my head about going back to sleep or getting up. Opting for the later I pulled my black boots on.

The door slid open and the lights in the corridor blinked on as soon as I stepped out. I'd never really explored the castle since arriving so I took the nearest flight of stairs upwards, finding a load of training rooms and even a library. I took another flight of stairs and found a door labelled with something in Altean. I shrugged and opened it, it slid open to show another flight of stairs and I frowned - walking up it.

I let off a gasp as it opened into a glass dome, I grinned as I could see millions of stars and constellations all over the sky - none of which I recognised of course but were beautiful all the same. I almost let out a shriek as a hand fell on my shoulder, as another hand went over my mouth I instantly recognising Keith's fingerless gloves and relaxed.

"It's just me." his voice laughed softly in my ear as he appeared at my side, I turned round and punched him in the shoulder.

"You scared the quiznak out of me!" I laughed, brushing my hair from his eyes. He laughed pretty hard and my eyes widened. _Shit, shit, shit. That was cute. He needs to do that more often._

"Did you follow me?" I cocked an eyebrow cheekily

"I wasn't sleeping and your boots aren't exactly quiet." he nodded to my clumpy biker boots.

"Don't knock the boots." I chuckled, sitting down on the floor. He followed me a moment later.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked

"Nightmare." I shrugged, I flopped back to look at the stars, keeping my knees bent.

"Are you alright?" he asked, I smiled at his concern.

"I'm fine, Keith." I said "why are you up?"

"Just couldn't sleep." he flopped down next to me, we sat in silence for a few moments.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" I breathed, looking at the stars, Keith hummed in agreement "do you think we can see Earth? One of these little dots is home?"

"I'm not sure."

"I think it's that one." I pointed to a particularly large, flickering speck.

"Yeah?" Keith smiled "why that one?"

"It's pretty." I breathed "I'd like to look on one and think of my family looking back."

"Your family?" he asked, I saw him look over at me.

"Well, just my mom..." I sighed "what about you, do you have any family?"

"No." he sighed, looking back at the stars. _Well, shit. Foot in mouth._ I looked down at where his hand lay an inch from mine. I reached over and put my hand on top of his, he jumped and looked over at me, his cheeks gone red.

"Sorry, I shouldn't of asked." I said, he smiled slightly.

"It's fine, it's been a long time on my own." he sighed, I squeezed his hand.

"You're not alone anymore, now you have us." I smiled, he considered this for a moment before smiling and turning to look up.

"You're right," he nodded, there was a brief silence "your Lion was right too."

"Huh?"

"You really are the heart of our team."


	8. Rematch

When my eyes fluttered open I was confused about where I was, there was blinding sunlight streaming down and for a moment I thought I was outside when I suddenly remembered where I was and my eyes focused on Keith three inches from my face, fast asleep. I flushed at the feeling of his fingers laced through mine. He looked so serene in his sleep, his face relaxed and his breathing soft. His face scrunched for a second before he snuffled in his sleep and my heart melted.

_Shit, did I like him?_

I very gently prised my small hands out of Keith's surprisingly large ones. His hands not particularly big, actually, just his fingers were long. I smiled at his sleeping form, deciding quickly on going to the training room but not before I stopped by the kitchen and found him a couple slices of weird Altean bread and a drink that tasted kinda funny but woke you up. I was calling it Altean coffee. I left it beside Keith's peacefully sleeping body and headed for the training rooms. When I entered I saw Shiro was already using the machines.

I let my bayard snap open as I watched him from the door. Shiro was immensely talented with hand to hand combat, I kinda wanted to take him on as I watched him take down 5 of the robots in a row. He didn't notice the 6th one coming at him from behind so I raised my bayard and shot it though the head. He jumped at the sound of the head exploding and turned to see me.

"Thanks, Lena." he chuckled as I walked over

"You mind the company? I can come back later.." I said, I'd never really been alone with Shiro before and was finding myself a little awkward.

"Of course not." he smiled kindly "be my guest."

"I figure we're a team now we should get used to fighting together." I shrugged

"Right, of course." Shiro nodded, he cocked his head slightly at me "I feel like I don't know you all that well yet, Lena, you're a lot... quieter than your team mates."

I chuckled, letting my bayard turn back into it's regular shape and pulling off my jacket "I'll take that as a compliment? Is that a polite way of saying the most normal?"

"Of course not." he smiled knowingly "I don't even think I know your last name."

"Corinth." I smiled "now you do."

"Corinth, that sounds familiar..." he frowned

"You probably knew my dad." I smiled "Jacob Corinth? He was the Pilot of the mission to Hydra before the Kerberos one."

"Oh yeah, I remember." he nodded "the Hydra mission... didn't that.."

"Break up reentering Earth's atmosphere." I nodded

"Oh god, I'm sorry." his eyes were wide, I waved my hand at his sympathy

"It's fine, honestly, I was only 5 at the time." I shrugged "I always had my mom, there's no need to feel bad."

"You had Lance too, didn't you?" he asked

"Yeah, Lance's mom and mine were best friends. The thing about me is I was a bit of an accident and when my mum was pregnant at 17 my grandparents wanted nothing to do with us. Lance's family took us in."

"That's why you're so close." Shiro smiled

"Boy's like the brother I really never wanted. Like _ever_."

He laughed as he sat down at the benches by the door "is that your soulmark?"

"Huh?" I turned and remembered the back of the clothes Allura gave me was mesh "oh yeah."

"It's pretty cool, it almost looks like wings." he cocked his head

"Hey, Shiro, you never answered - have you met your soulmate?" I asked, sitting down on the ledge opposite him by the battling stage.

"I don't remember." he shook his head sadly "though if I don't remember them, I really hope I didn't. I want to be able to remember everything about them."

I smiled at him, Keith suddenly popping into my head "Shiro, can I ask you something?"

"Anytime." he nodded

"Do you think it's possible to fall for someone who isn't your soulmate?" I asked, he seemed taken a back by the question but not off put as he hummed thoughtfully.

"I don't see why not, I've known people to fall in love before they meet their soulmate and still remain with that person after.." he said and I nodded "why do you ask?"

I was cut off by the door opening and Keith himself walking in, making a blush spread across my face "oh, hey guys - should I come back later?"

Shiro looked at me and his eyes widened when he noticed my red complexion, then a smile formed on his lips "no, I was just going - you guys train together." Shiro stood up and smiled at me, handing my my jacket "it was nice to talk to you, Lena."

"You too." I smiled at him as I pulled it on. He clapped Keith on the shoulder before walking out the door.

"You sure it's okay to train with you? I don't want to invade." Keith said, taking a couple steps into the room.

"Course it is." I stood up and brushed my knees

"Listen, thanks for, uh, leaving me breakfast.." he blushed slightly, I smiled when I remembered what I left him.

"No problem." I smiled "so how should we train?"

x

"God, I'm wiped." I flopped down on the floor of the training room, panting as I tried to regain my breath. Keith sat next to me, also out of breath. I looked over to him as he brushed sweaty bangs from his face.

"Did I really pin you in combat?" I asked, he looked over at me and chuckled.

"Yeah, it was kinda embarrassing." he smiled "I had a streak of not being pinned then this 5 foot nothing girl walks in and slams me into the ground."

"I did?" I grinned "awesome."

"Hey!" he chuckled, looking at me "where did you even learn to fight?"

"My dad taught me the moment I could stand," I smiled "some kid at preschool was mean to me so he taught me how to put them in a headlock."

"Sounds like a great dad."

"He was." I smiled sadly, there was a brief moment of silence "do you want a rematch?"

"What?"

"A rematch, to see if you can pin me?" I laughed, sitting up.

Keith grinned "you're on." he said and stood up into the middle of the room and raised his first, a smirk on his lips as if to challenge me. I chuckled and followed him, walking opposite him and raising my fists. He made the first move, swinging his at my jaw. I ducked quickly before raising my knee, hitting him in the stomach, he doubled over and I thought out of pain until he grabbed my arm, swinging it round awkwardly behind my back. I felt his chest press into my back as I winced.

"I win." he mumbled next to my ear and I shuddered as his warm breath trickled over my neck. This is when I threw my head back, connecting with the bridge of his nose. He stumbled away from me, I ran forward, using his shoulders as aid I threw my legs around his neck, before launching my body backwards, my hands touching the floor and I used my entire body strength to flip my legs forward, Keith going with them and slamming into the floor. I spun myself round with him, straddling his waist and pinning his shoulders to the floor with my hands. I grinned down at him, panting slightly.

"Not today." I chuckled

"Not bad" he said smoothly, I suddenly realised how close we were, my knees straddling his hips, the hand sitting was on my waist for support when I threw him hadn't moved. As I met his gaze I saw his cheeks were slightly pink, purple eyes blown wide. When I was this close I noticed little things I hadn't before. Flecks of blue in his eyes, how dark his eyelashes were, a small scar above his right eyebrow, a faint smattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose. God, they all made him so much more attractive.

"L-Lena?" he whispered

"Sorry.." I shook my head, not making any move to get up "you're kinda beautiful, you know that?"

I watched as his entire face exploded red and I realised what I said and I cringed. Jesus fuck, why did I think that was a good idea. His hand reached up, fingers trembling slightly and brushed my hair from my face behind my ear. His hand remaining on my cheek, the feel of his skin touching mine spread warmth through my body. I didn't even think it through as I leaned down, his lips had barely even brushed mine when sirens blasted through the Castle and I jumped in fright. I scrambled off him quickly, ignoring the urge to launch myself out of the nearest escape pod and we ran for the control room. Lance, Hunk, Allura and Coran were all there. We arrived just as Allura turned the screens on. I looked up to see a tiny alien on the screen was approaching the castle.

"What is that?" I frowned, walking over

"No idea..." Allura replied "he's approaching the castle."

"He's kinda adorable." I giggled, watching the tiny thing wildly wave a knife and run at the castle.

"Let's go welcome them." Allura nodded and left the room.

"Hey, Lena, are you alright?" Lance appeared at my side, face mildly concerned "you're really flushed, your cheeks are all red."

"I'm fine." I croaked, then cleared my throat. Lance frowned putting a hand on my forehead

"You're really warm as well, are you sure you're okay?"

"Fine!" I laughed awkwardly, looking anywhere but Keith. I'd almost kissed him? What the fuck was I doing. I looked at my feet as I followed after Hunk and Allura out the door and to the front of the castle. When I did I saw that they were following the little guy towards the hill and I jogged after them.


	9. Vol..tron?

I smiled as I stood with Lance, Hunk and Keith, doing my best not to chuckle at the reenactment the people of Arus were doing about our battle against the Galra. I'd seen worse plays so I still clapped when they were finished. All of them cheering when Allura gifted them with a communicator if they ever needed help.

"We ought to get something like that." Hunk said

"Like what?" I chuckled

"Like, a team cheer." he explained and I smiled at my friend

"Hmmm, yeah.. okay." Lance said thoughtfully "how about - I say Vol you say tron! Vol-"

I didn't even bother humouring him, but Keith hummed "uh.. Voltron...?"

I choked on my drink at how cute that was. Yhe two of us had gone back to normal. Both of us either totally ignoring the fact we almost kissed or just not thinking about it full stop. I still harboured awkward feelings, smiling fondly as Lance tried to explain the cheer to him and he got it wrong a second time.

"You're lucky you're pretty." I chuckled and I watched Keith blush slightly, Lance and Hunk laughing at the statement. It was nice to be able to talk and socialise with the Arusians. Though the drinks were somewhat questionable, I walked over to the food table. I frowned as Lance walked past me, obviously sniffling as he walked up the stairs.

"Lance, wait!" I called but he kept walking, I frowned and walked over to Hunk and Keith "what's wrong with him?"

"I'm not sure, he started talking about garlic knots and his Mom's hugs..." Hunk frowned

"Oh god," I sighed "I should go talk to him."

"What's wrong with him?" Keith raised an eyebrow

"He's just homesick," I shrugged "the boy could barely spend a night over at my house without calling his mom when we were kids... excuse me." with that I handed Hunk my cup of gross juice I hadn't touched and ran up the stairs after my friend. I found him alone in his room, head in hands, snuffling quietly into his palms.

"Lance." I said gently, closing the door behind me.

"Oh, Lena!" he laughed, looking up and trying to pass up that he wasn't crying "I was just feeling tired."

"You're an awful liar." I sat down on his bed beside him

"I think I'm alright," he quoted me with a sad smile "just you know me to well."

"What's wrong?" I asked

"I just... I miss home." he sniffed and I sighed, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He rested his head on my shoulder, snuffling.

"I miss them too." I sighed, running a soothing hand through the back of his hair "you know what I could go for right now?" he hummed for me to continue "your mom's pizza bread." He chuckled, his shoulders shaking under my arms "with the melted cheese that would stick your jaw together in the best way possible."

"Me too." he sniffed "....I miss your mom's cookies."

I felt my heart give a painful twist at the memory "oh god, same."

"When they're hot out the oven, and they crumbled in your hands with the chocolate still melted." he sat up with a chuckle and I liked to see that smile.

"We'll see them soon." I reached over and put a hand on his, he nodded solemnly.

"I'm glad you're here." he sniffed, then squeezed my hand "I have a little piece of home with me."

"I'm glad you're here too, as much as you tease me." I smiled and he laughed

"Come on," he stood up "we're missing the party."

"Right." I nodded, following him out the door. I looked over at him and punched his arm "race you!" and with that I sprinted toward the main hall. We used to do this all the time as kids.

"No fair!" he yelled after me "you had a head start, you cheater!"

"You snooze you loose McClain!" I laughed back as we burst into the main hall. I came to a skidding halt beside Keith and Hunk, panting and laughing as Lance walked over pouting.

"Best 2 out of three?" he asked

"Just accept that I won." I grinned and he huffed as Coran walked over.

"One of you mind helping me with something in the drive room?" he asked, I made eye contact with Hunk

"Not it!" we both shouted shoving our hands in the air, I grabbed Keith's arm and shoved it up too. Lance turned and looked at us, groaning and cursing us before walking off with Coran.

"He looks like he feels better now." Hunk smiled

"Just needed a hug."

"Your hugs must be magical." Hunk laughed.

"I've been told." I shrugged as Allura, Pidge and Shiro walked over to talk with us. It was nice to talk with them, for once feeling like the Galra weren't breathing down our necks. I honestly felt like we were bonding as a team. They didn't make me think of how worried my mother must be back home right now.

The happiness came to an abrupt halt when there was the sound of a huge explosion, the castle shaking so violently under me that it knocked me to the floor. The Arusians around us screeching and running for the open doors as the lights went out.

"Lena, are you alright?" Keith's face was suddenly in front of me, holding a hand to help me up.

"I'm fine." I coughed

"That came from the control room." Allura said, her voice panicked. My blood froze in my veins.

"Lance and Coran just went there." I managed, my feet shot into action as I ran for the control room. Please be okay. _Please_ be okay. As the doors of the drive room opened black smoke billowed out, we all coughed as we walked in through the smoke. As it cleared we saw Coran sitting up on the floor. Shiro and Hunk immediately moved to help.

"What happened?" Shiro asked

"I'm not sure." Coran held his head, I looked around in a panic. the smoke cleared slightly as my eyes widened as I saw Lance on the floor a little away.

"Lance!" I shouted, running over and dropping to my knees, as I rolled him over I gasped at the various burns, scrapes and scratches that littered his face. I pulled him up on to my lap and into my arms as the others ran over.

"Lance!" I repeated as shook him, on the verge of tears.

"We have to get him to the infirmary." Pidge said as I clung to my friend.

"Without the crystal the castle doesn't have power." Allura said "there's no way to even get the Lion's out the hangers."

I barely listened as they made a plan, holding lance up I brushed his hair off his face. Shiro said he'd stay with me and tend to Lance as Allura and Keith went to the village, Pidge, Coran and Hunk going out in search of a new crystal. At this point I wasn't even aware that I had started crying until a drop fell down on to Lance's cheek. A hand fell on my shoukder and I jumped, looking up into Shiro's eyes.

"It's okay, Lena." he smiled reassuringly "he'll be fine, I'll make sure of it."


	10. Galra Popsicle

I yawned as I leaned against Lance's healing pod. I hadn't moved since we'd put him in there 18 hours ago. According to Allura it should only take 24 hours but I didn't want him to be alone when he woke up. Just in case he woke up early or if something happened. I just wanted to be here. I had made a camp, I had a blanket over my knees as I leaned against the metal. Allura had found me some human books in the library and I sighed as I read along a relatively boring story, going over the same line a few times as it never absorbed. I only looked up when I heard the door to the infirmary open.

"Oh, hey, Shiro." I smiled weakly as the black paladin entered the chamber.

"You're still here?" he asked sympathetically.

"Yeah..." I scratched my neck.

"Have you eaten anything today?" he said, his voice suddenly stern. When I didn't reply he sighed "why don't you go to the kitchen? Hunk just made something."

"I'd rather stay..." I mumbled

"Why don't I wait here while you get something?" he offered with a smile, sitting down next to me "Lance isn't due to be healed for another few hours, I'll keep watch."

I dithered, my stomach growling loudly made my decision for me "I guess a little food won't hurt..."

"Good girl." he smiled as I stood up, folding my book closed. As I stood I realised how a.) tired b.) weak and c.) hungry I was as I staggered slightly as I left the room. I walked toward the kitchen in a daze, as the door slid open I saw Keith was poking at some of the Altean goo and I smiled. He looked up as the door closed behind me with a small smile.

"You look rough." he didn't even greet me and I chuckled as I walked into the room.

"Geeze. Thanks Keith." I said "you know what, I don't like your hair."

He smiled fondly at me and I grinned cheekily as I ruffled his black hair on the way to a cupboard to find a bag of Altean chips. Well that was what I was calling them. They were green, crunchy and salty so in my head they were chips.

"You should eat some proper food." Keith commented

"Do you even know what's in these?" I asked "cause I don't, could be a 3 course dehydrated meal for all you know."

He chuckled "stop making me laugh when I'm trying to lecture you."

I smiled at him "sorry, thank you for caring..." he blushed slightly "and I take it back, I like your mullet, it suits you."

"Thanks." he rolled his eyes and I sat down beside him, offering him the bag. He craved almost instantly and took one, crunching it and pushing his goo away from him. It was this moment the door opened and Pidge dashed in, panting and sweating.

"Lance.. is... awake." he wheezed. I jumped to my feet and ran after him out the door a grin on my face. He was alright. As the door I saw he was standing with everyone, they fell silent as I entered and Lance frowned as he turned to me.

He smiled softly "hey."

I grinned, feeling my eyes well as I dashed over the room and launched myself into his chest, throwing my arms around his shoulders. He let off an "oof" as he stumbled backwards, grabbing my waist to stop us both falling over.

"Damn, I should get hurt more often." he chuckled, wrapping both arms securely around my waist.

"Don't you dare." I hissed as he put me down, I rubbed at the tears that dared to fall out as he held me at arms length. It was then I punched him square in the chest. Hard.

"Ouch! What the quiznak?" he hand a hand over his chest.

"You scared me to death!" I exclaimed"don't ever do that again." He smiled and held a pinky out to me. I giggled, images of the time he broke his mom's vase when he was 10 and made me promise not to tell shooting into my head. I sniffed and hooked my finger through his.

 

x

 

I smiled as one of the Altean mice jumped on to my lap. I was perched on the edge of the table as Lance ate some of the Altean goo. We were discussing what we had to do next, given we now had a Sendak popsicle below deck and we also had to some how help the Balmera. Hunk giving us a pretty good speech on saving them, and that we had to man up and be able to save them.

"You _do_ have a girl on your team." I cocked an eyebrow at him

"You know what I mean." he sighed

"I do, we better get to saving them then, shouldn't we?" I jumped off the chair, putting the little blue mouse down and following Shiro and Keith to the door.

"Wait." Pidge said and we turned "I have something to say first. I need to come clean and I'm afraid this may change the way you all think about me." Pidge paused, looking down "just so there are no secrets between us anymore... "I can't man up either. I'm a girl."

In all honesty I wasn't even shocked. Pidge and I always got cranky at the same time every four weeks and I kinda suspected. I smiled at her as she started babbling about how manning up was just a phrase.

"What?! You're a girl?!" Lance was shocked, I glanced at my other team members who barely even looked bothered.

"I've known for some time." Allura smiled "but I'm glad you've shared it with everyone."

"Yeah, I figured." Hunk shrugged

"Oh yeah, me too." Keith was smiling

"I kinda suspected." I shrugged

"Wait, were we supposed to think Pidge wasn't a girl?" Coran asked and I chuckled quietly

"Pidge, owning who you are is going to make you a better Paladin." came Shiro's typical kind advice.

The small girl breathed a sigh of relief "that feels so good to get that off my chest. Alright, let's go launch this castle ship!"


	11. The Real Battle

I yawned widely as I stumbled out of my room sometime during the night. Keeping up with time while you were in space was exhausting. My watch read 4:25 am. I smiled, knowing that a million light years away my mother was probably in her bed. I had been wearing it the whole time we were on this save the universe thing. As I walked into the barracks I didn't expect really expect any company this early in the morning so I almost let off a shriek as a voice greeted me.

"Morning." came Keith's voice as I walked in, nearly stopping my heart. He was sat on the dipped down chairs with a holo screen in front of him, looking like a Hershey's kiss of blankets.

"Good morning," I cocked an eyebrow "why are you up?"

He shrugged "couldn't sleep, what about you?"

"Same." I frowned at the screen "what are you doing?"

"Watching this thing Coran gave me," he shrugged "I think it's the Alteans form of T.V. - it's just started."

"They had T.V.?" I laughed, jumping down into where the seats were and flopped next to him.

"Apparently," he shrugged "Coran said this was the height of entertainment and his favourite one."

I turned to the holo screen where there was a man and a woman dramatically staring at each other, the dialogue was a little hard to follow but I frowned "is this... is this a soap opera?"

"I think it is." Keith laughed

"Oh my god, turn it up." I giggled and he did as he was told, stretching his legs out and leaning them on the table in front of him. We watched in a comfortable silence, I got absorbed into the story line after about 2 ticks. I shivered slightly into the room, the cold air of the castle swirling around my bare legs.

"You cold?" Keith asked

"A little." I shrugged

"Here." suddenly he threw one end of his blanket around my shoulders and I blushed as he scooted slightly closer. His arm pressed into mine and I nearly let off a gasp at how warm his skin was "jeeze, you're an ice cube."

"Oh shut up." I smiled, getting comfy, I tried to put my legs on the table but they weren't long enough to reach "hold still." I huffed.

"Huh?" he questioned then his eyes widened as I threw my legs over his lap.

"That's better." I smiled, stretching them out. Keith's face was red and he held his hand out for a few moments, unsure of what to do before it slowly came down and rested on my knee. I didn't even blink, sitting like this felt.. nice. Honestly just being around him was nice. I smiled as I looked at the T.V. resting my temple on the back of the chair near his shoulder as I did. I didn't mean to fall asleep, just the warmth of his body and the comfort of the blanket had me lulled unconscious again in under 5 minutes.

x

I was woken up to hushed voices. I didn't open my eyes immediately, vaguely aware I was pressed against something soft and warm. It took me a moment to realise that thing was Keith and that his hand was also sitting on my knee and my head was tucked into the crook of his neck.

"Honestly, it's quite cute." came Pidge's voice as I slowly became more aware of my surroundings.

"Cute. Vomit inducing. You decide." came Lance's sarcastic tone, closely followed by Shiro's harsh shush.

"You'll wake them." he hissed

"Bit late there, Shiro." I mumbled, opening my eyes. The three of them jumped at my voice and I blinked groggily, the blanket falling off my shoulder. I looked over to where Keith was still sound asleep and smiled fondly.

"Aw, it's so cute." Pidge grinned at me, wiggling her eyebrows.

"After I get my coffee, I'm coming for you, Pidge." I yawned

"Why are you guys even asleep in here?" Shiro chuckled with a soft smile in our direction.

"Couldn't sleep so we watched this weird Altean soap opera." I yawned, stretching my hands above my head and letting my back pop.

"I'm gonna go throw up." Lance muttered, leaving the room. The door closing make Keith stir, his eyes fluttering open.

"Morning, Romeo." Pidge smirked, walking past the chairs in the direction of the kitchen too. Keith hummed in confusion, still half asleep. Shiro chuckled and shook his head, patting Keith's shoulder.

"Anyway, Allura found an empty planet and we're going to stop off."

"Why?" Keith frowned

"There's a beach!" came Lance's shout from the next room.

"Soooo, it's a day off?" I grinned

"Allura thought we deserved it after the Balmera, the real battle starts soon...."


	12. Swirl

"This is beautiful!" I grinned as we stepped off the castle ship. It was warm weather on the planet, apparently the whole place had horrible sand storms during the night making it hard for intelligent life to thrive. So it was pretty much dominated by crustaceans and reptiles. According to Coran's scan anyway.

"Wanna come swimming?" Pidge grinned, appearing at my side in a green and gold one piece. Allura had found Altean swim sutis for all of us. Mine being a two piece with pretty silver Altean patterns swirling around the purple material. My blonde hair was pulled up into a bun as I ran after Pidge on to the warm sand and towards the ocean. We came to the abrupt halt by the shore.

"Why... why is it red?" I frowned, stepping away from the "water".

"Oh, we scanned it - there's a lot of Serratia marcescens in it but it's perfectly harmless!" Coran grinned, twisting his moustache. I glanced at Pidge who shrugged, I stepped forward, dipping in a toe and letting off a shriek at how cold it was.

"What?! Are you okay?!" Came Keith's worried voice

"It's freezing!" I squealed with a laugh. The 4 boys relaxed immediately, knowing I wasn't in pain.

"There's only one thing for it then," Pidge said, taking a few steps back and grinning at me. I caught on and laughed, walking to her side.

"On three?" I said

"One..." Pidge replied

"What are you two doing?" Lance asked

"Two..." I grinned

"Three!" Pidge shouted as we suddenly ran for the water's edge. The red liquid slapped into my legs and I couldn't help but let off a high pitched squeal as Pidge and I made it to the waist high, the cold water making goose pimples form all over my bare midriff.

"Quinack! That's cold!" I shivered, turning to Pidge just in time for her to splash me in the face with cold water "alright, this means war." and with that I shoved as much of the water at her as I could and she let off a scream.

After spending ages swimming and having water fights, Pidge and I were pruning and shaking with the cold. We walked out of the water and over to where the boys and Allura were sat chatting and sun bathing. I brushed my sopping wet, slightly red tinged hair from my face as I stopped next to Keith, who was standing with one of those juice packs Coran gave us. He jumped as I dripped water on to his arm

"God, that's freezing." he said, stepping away "and it looks like blood..."

"Oh come on, Keith." I stepped towards him, outstretching my arms "don't you wan't a hug?"

"Lena, don't you dare." he stepped back, the other Paladins were snickering at us at this point.

"What?" I smirked, stepping toward him "all I want is a hug?"

"No!" he laughed, dodging as I lunged for him, with that he took off running. I giggled as I ran after him. I managed to catch up with him and jumped, launching myself on to his back. He let out a yelp of shock as I wrapped my legs round his waist, nuzzling my cold, wet hair into his neck. It was then his screams turned high pitched, I slid down his back slightly and his hands went under my thighs.

"I hate you." he groaned and I laughed as I looped my arms around his shoulders.

"I know." I grinned, leaning my chin on his shoulder to smile at him. He looked sideways at me and sighed, shaking his head as he carried me back towards the others who were chuckling. He put me down softly and I scooped up my towel off the floor, quickly dried off before flopping down on my towel on next to Lance.

x

A slightly cold wind blew over us and I mentally kicked myself as I shivered. I should of brought a jacket or something. The sun was warm and everyone else seemed fine but My wet hair was making goose pimples form all over my body, I had thought of shorts but not a jacket. I think it was just cause my hair was wet yet my body was dry.

"Hey, are you cold?" came Keith's voice as he looked over from where he was watching Hunk and Shiro try to teach Allura and Coran the basics of beach volleyball. Lance was snoring next to me and Pidge had her headphones in and was typing away on a laptop.

"A little." I smiled, he turned and threw me over a length of black material, as I caught it I realised it was the t-shirt he usually wore and a blush found it's way to my cheeks "thank you." I smiled and pulled it over my head, the material fell past the hem of my shorts, given that Keith was at least a foot taller than me. It was then the beach volleyballers came back.

"That game was so fun!" Allura smiled

"I still don't see the point...." Coran commented

"There isn't a point, Coran, it's just fun." Shiro chuckled.

"Hey, I think I might explore a little." I commented to them

"Don't go too far." Shiro said as I pulled on the only shoes I owned. My biker boots.

I giggled "Woah, Shiro, really sounding like a father there." he shot be a look and I grinned, tucking Keith's shirt into my shorts as I wandered down the beach. My hair starting to dry now in the wind and sun so I pulled it from it's bun and down my back. It fell in curls after drying in a bun and I smiled into the wind. After a while the beach came to a stop and it changed to a rocky outcrop. I sighed as I saw the beach continued after some rocks. I guess I could go through the jungle a little to get round this. I shrugged and walked a little into the jungle, it was slightly more humid but it was pretty. I could hear birds tweeting.

A noise of a branch breaking made the blood freeze in my veins. I had the most awful feeling something was behind me. I slowly reached for my bayard, pulling it just off belt. Shit. I moved to turn and then let off a shriek as a furry, purple hand clamped down painfully on my mouth.

"Hold still, Paladin." came a gruff voice and I felt the cold barrel of a gun be pushed against my neck. There was a shot of pain and I screamed into the hand, it was totally muffled. I watched as my bayard slipped from my hand as I went numb all over. The world in front of me swirled and went black. My knees buckled as I totally lost consciousness.


	13. Prisoner

"Lena sure has been gone a long time." Keith commented as they watched the sun start to set.

"I'm sure she'll be back soon." Pidge said vaguely

"I'm gonna go look for her."

"I'll come with you." Shiro said, getting to his feet. Keith smiled at him, glad for the company and glad that it was Shiro. The two of them took off in the direction Lena had gone over an hour before. Shiro looked over at his fried who was gnawing on his bottom lip and smiled slightly at his concern.

"You like her, don't you?" Shiro smirked and Keith's face instantly flushed red.

"N-no!" he shot back dedfensively.

"Liar." the black paladin chuckled and shook his head "you're face is redder than your lion."

"Is it even possible to like someone...like that, who isn't your soulmate?"

Shiro shrugged "I'm sure it is. You choose what decisions you make, if you like her I say go for it."

Keith hummed, pushing his hands into the pockets of his jacket "you're right, thanks Shiro."

"Any time." he older man smiled as they stopped as they reached an out crop of rocks. Shiro looked around and noticed the distinct tracks of Len's ridiculous boots leading into the jungle "looks like she went through the forest to get past this."

Keith nodded and the two of them stalked into the dense jungle, Shiro following her obvious tracks in the mud of the forest floor. He sighed as the tracks faded into thicker undergrowth. Keith looked around, coming to the conclusion in his mind she must of just been trying to get back down to the beach. His eye caught on something white sticking out from the plants on the ground. His heart stopping in his chest as he walked over.

"Oh god." he croaked, leaning down to pick up her bayard, which was still open where it lay on the ground.

"Keith, what is it?" Shiro asked, the red paladin turned around and held out the bow in his hand.

"H-her bayard. It's in battle mode..." he managed, something else on the leaves below him also caught his eye and he gasped at the red splatter on the ground "oh god, Shiro, there's drops of blood."

"We have to get back to the others." Shiro said, trying his best not to panic "we'll get to the castle ship and scan the planet for her. I'm sure she just tripped or something."

"Right.." Keith managed, staring at the weapon in his hands which transformed into the simple bayard.

x

"The scans aren't bringing up any signs of human life." Coran said, his face set into a deep frown as all of them stood round the screens in the control room of the castle, now dressed and all worried. Desperately searching for the purple paladin.

"She has to be there somewhere!" Lance snapped, running a hand through his hair. Not bothering to hide the look of sheer panic on his face that his life long best friend was missing. They all jumped as sirens started blaring throughout the ship, the image of Sendak flashing on the screen with a sickening grin on his face.

"Misplaced something, Paladins?" he chuckled

"What have you done with her?!" Keith growled, positively seething with anger.

"She's alive...for now." he shrugged. The picture suddenly changed to an image of Lena's body sitting on the floor, chained to a wall. Her head lolled forward as if unconscious. Pidge let off a small gasp of shock into the otherwise silent room "oh come on, look alive sunshine." she didn't move "Haggar."

They all watched in horror as the witch shot lightning bolts towards the small girl, who screamed in agony, jumping awake and crying into the room.

"Enough." Sendak stated after a few moments and the lightning stopped, the girl was panting and she looked up. Tears streaming down her face. There was a purple bruise forming on her cheek as if she'd been punched, hard, in the face, a cut on her neck had bled down her skin and soaked into Keith's shirt. The blood was now dark brown and dried. Her knees were skinned and mud was caked on her legs.

"She kept saying a name in her sleep." Sendak chuckled "I take it one of you is Keith? Isn't young love just sickening." the Galra moved on to the screen and took her chin in his large hand, she winced as if it hurt and Keith almost felt it himself as he watched in horror.

"I wonder how it might break your heart to see her die." he laughed, throwing her roughly on to the floor. She gasped and panted into the floor, a small and broken sob escaping her mouth.

"Here's the deal paladins. Hand over your lions or I will remove her head." he looked back to the camera. Keith was holding his breath, his chest aching as he couldn't tear her eyes away from the broken girl "you have one Earth hour."

The image disappeared and all of them stood in silence for a moment. All off them totally horrified and lost for words.

"We have to go get her." Keith croaked, his eyes stinging. He turned on his heel and went for the door, Shiro grabbed his arm.

"Keith wait, we need to plan this. We can't just go in guns blazing."

"They're hurting her, Shiro!" Keith snapped, yanking his arm out of the black Paladins grip "there is no thinking this through, the longer she's there, the longer they're going to torture her!"

"For once, I'm with Keith." Lance spoke up

"I think I have an idea." Pidge said, her voice was weaker than normal as she pressed her glasses up her nose.

 


	14. Soulmate

Everything hurt, my skin had been rubbed raw by the shackles around my wrists. I could feel my eyes were tired and dry, feeling like sandpaper every time I close them. Haggar had taken a 5 minute break from blasting me with her 2000 watts of pure bitchiness to discuss something with a sentry. I had to get out of here. Just how? I scanned the room for anything to help me.

"Still not talking are we?" came the gravelly voice of Haggar and I shot her a death glare "just tell us where the castle ship is and we'll let you free."

"Bite me." I hissed.

She cackled and turned toward me "your fate is a shame, I'm starting to like you girl." with that I suddenly felt like my blood was on fire as her electric magic ran through my bones. I couldn't help but scream out in pain. It was sheer agony to say the least. She only gave up when the noise of a loud explosion erupted through the ship, shaking the very floor beneath me. I gasped as the pain subsided, the more she did this the weaker I felt, slimming my chances of getting myself out of this. I just registered the fact she left the room as I started sliding in and out of consciousness now. I don't know how much time passed. In all honesty, it could of been days. I didn't even hear the door open until a warm hand touched my face. I jumped away in fear and fright, my eyes barely focusing on the room.

"Lena! Lena, it's me." came Keith's soft voice and I focused on his face, Shiro was guarding the door, both of them in their armour.

"Keith..?" I said, my eyes meeting those purple ones and I grinned, my mind was fuzzy and delirious at this point.

"Can you stand?" he asked gently "Shiro, melt off her shackles?" my eyes focused fuzzily on Shiro, my vision going black around the edges. Shiro's bionic arm clamped over the middle off my shackles and snapped them off, I fell forward at the only thing that was holding me up was gone. Keith caught me just before I hit the floor.

"I got you..." came his soft voice, the skin of his cheek was warm against mine and I smiled deliriously as he gathered me up into his arms "let's get out of here. Fast." he addressed Shiro. I pushed my face into his neck, his smell washing over me as I felt myself losing consciousness.

"Lena?!" Keith's worried voice came in my ear "stay with me! We're almost out of here, stay awake."

"Keith, we got sentries on our tails!" Shiro said

"Oh god, Lena I have to put you down for a minute, okay?"

"Okay..." I mumbled and I felt the ground come up to meet me and Keith disappear. I was feeling more awake now, my vision clearing as I watched Shiro and Keith fend off an army of Galra sentries. They managed to fend off at least 10 off them. Panting, Keith walked over to grab me again.

"I think I can walk." I said, he nodded and took me around the waist, I gripped on to his shoulder and limped through the halls. As we made it to a hanger I couldn't help but grin as I saw The Red Lion, I was getting out of here.

Until, that is, I spotted a Sentry enter from the other side of the room. It aimed it's gun directed at Keith and my eyes widened.

"Look out!" I pushed him to the ground, he looked at me with shock. I realised far too late that I was now in direct line of fire and my legs were to weak to get out the way fast enough. I felt a blinding pain through my gut and then nothing at all. I frowned as I looked down, there was a charred hole in Keith's shirt and then suddenly, warm red blood started to flood into the material.

"Oh." I managed as my knees buckled.

Keith grabbed me and fell to his knees, bringing me on to his lap.I started feeling the pain now as blood filled my mouth, I coughed and it splattered on to his face.

"N-no" he said "hey, hold on - don't go dying on me"

I smiled as I reached out the brush his hair from his eyes "hey, don't frown. I like to see you smile."

"Keith, what is i- oh god." Shiro ran over "get her into red now, we have to get her on to the Infirmary on the castle ship ASAP."

"R-right." Keith blubbered, I flinched as white hot pain shot into my stomach as Keith pulled me up into his arms again. I pushed a hand into my gut to try and stop the bleeding but it just seeped through my fingers. I was blacking out as Keith ran, the last thing I remembered was getting into Red and Keith saying my name in a worried tone.

x

Keith felt like crying as he ran after Shiro; Lena was limp in his arms, her breathing erratic as she bled into his shirt. They had just landed in the Castle Ship and were now running for the infirmary. They burst through the doors to see all of them were nervously waiting.

"Did you get her?" Lance said hopefully, his eyes fell on her body in Keith's arms and his eyes blew wide "oh god."

"Put her down on the table!" Allura ordered and Keith didn't pause a complying, knowing Allura would do a much better job at immediate first aid.

"What happened?!" Hunk exclaimed, his eyes glued to the blood soaked hole in Lena's stomach.

"We got to the Lion and a sentry..." Keith ran his hair with stress "she pushed me out the way."

"I need space!" Allura barked "I want everyone out but Keith I need to know exactly what happened."

"But-" Lance tried

"Please." she snapped impatiently and the boy sighed and nodded, leaving the room after the other Paladins who were all in states of panic and worry.

"What do we do, Princess?" Coran asked soothingly, trying to keep an air of calm when he really did not feel calm at all.

"Keith, lift her torso, I need to check for an exit wound." Allura instructed "if it didn't burn all the way through the medipods should be able to heal her in a few days." Keith did as he was told, standing behind her and pushing her shoulders as gently as he could so she was at 90 degrees. He head lolled forward and Allura gently took her t shirt and pulled it off over her head.

The information didn't immediately hit Keith as he stared at her soulmark. Not even when the confirmation of his initials in the bottom.

"Thank god." he barely processed Alluras words as he laid her back down, he stumbled away. A gasp escaping his mouth.

"Oh my god." his hands ran up into his hair, trying to process the information.

"Keith, what's wrong?" Coran asked

"She... she... her mark... soulmate... oh god." Keith stumbled.

Holy shit.

She was his soulmate.


	15. Realization

The first thing I registered as I lulled back to consciousness was dull chatter.

I felt heavy, but also light.

I felt like I had slept a million years but also everything ached.

I groaned slightly as I tried to open my eyes, they felt like sandpaper and like they weighed a tonne. As my eyes blinked open it took a minute for them to focus on the grinning faces of the Paladins in front of me. It clicked in my brain that I was in one of the medipods as the screen disappeared. 

"Hey." I croaked, my throat was dry and I tried to step out but my legs gave out. Lance lurched forward in a split second and grabbed me round the waist. 

"Woah, careful, you've been in there a week." he said, lifting me on to wobbly feet.

"A week?" I rasped, looping an arm over Lance's shoulders "what the hell happened? ... I remember Keith and Shiro came for me..."

"You got shot." Pidge said gently 

"Damn." I managed, suddenly the memory of the agonising pain flooded back.

"You got shot while saving Keith's skin." Lance said slightly bitterly, I just realised the red Paladin was not in the room.

"Where _is_ Keith?" I frowned

"He's taking a nap." Allura smiled "he's been sitting by your pod all week, Hunk do you mind telling him Lena's awake."

"Sure." he nodded and stepped for the door.

"Listen, Lena... about Keith there's something you should know..." Lance said, but then the doors opened the the boy himself ran in, panting as his eyes fell on me and a smile broke on to his face.

"You're awake." he smiled, taking a few steps forward 

"Takes more than a Galra fleet to take me down." I said lamely and he chuckled.

"Keith." Shiro said slightly sternly and I frowned at the tone "I think there's something you want to tell Lena, right?"

"Right." he nodded

"What's going on?" I frowned as Lance let go of me. He smiled slightly at me, brushing a hair from my face before stepping away with the others, almost like he was bidding me farewell "Keith?"

The red paladin sighed, looking at his feet before turning his back to me. I felt my cheeks redden a touch when he took the hem of his shirt into his hands and pulled it up to rest on the nape of his neck. I frowned for a moment as I looked at what appeared to be his soul mark.

_That look an awful lot like mine._

"Holy fuck." I stumbled back a few steps as it hit me like a tonne of bricks .I noticed that it appeared to be half changing colour and I wondered if mine looked like that, deep purple flooding into red patches. Keith turned around, his cheeks flushed and desperately looked at me for a reaction. I felt a smile tug on my lips. The only reason I was questioning how I felt about him being he wasn't my soulmate and now? 

I didn't hesitate then. I practically ran across the room, as I collided with his chest I had to jump about 20cm for our lips to touch. He immediately wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me that touch suspended in the air. The kiss was dizzying. All warmth and closeness and I felt like I was drunk for a moment as his, surprisingly, very soft lips moved against mine. God, they say the first kiss you have with your soulmate is indescribable. And they're fucking right. It was like fireworks. His lips fitted perfectly to mine, as if we were designed to go together. Well, I guess we were. But, in that moment I felt like I was soaring, like nothing could ever go bad again - as long as this person was in my life. It didn't matter about the Galra or the fact we had to save the universe; just for that one moment.   
He pulled away after an amazing few moments, placing me down gently, his hands sitting on my hips. I couldn't help but giggle as I brushed his hair out his eyes.

"I knew it was you." I shook my head, leaning it on his collarbones. He suddenly tugged me forward into a hug, his arms going all the way round my waist.

"You scared me to death." he whispered "don't do that again."

"Save your life?" I smiled, wrapping my arms around his shoulders "no promises."

"Well, isn't that just freaking adorable." came Pidge's voice and I forgot they were even in the room. My cheeks flushed and I turned to see them all watching us with varying reactions. Allura was grinning, Coran looked uncomfortable but also pleased, Pidge had a smirk, Hunk and Shiro looked happy while Lance pouted.  
 _"_

Hey, McClain." I said and he looked over at me. I sighed and walked over, throwing arms around his shoulders, he hugged back and I felt him smile into my neck. As I pulled away I tugged sharply on his cheek "keep pouting and your face is gonna get stuck like that."  
 _"_

"Yeah, yeah..." he sighed, then smiled, punching my shoulder in the fond way we usually did "put him in his place, got it?"

"Obviously." I smiled. I then jumped as Allura squealed happily, grabbing my hand.

"I'm so excited I got to see soulmates meet! Humans are so interesting!" she beamed and I blushed.

"Just keep the PDA to a minimum." Lance sighed as Keith walked over and stepped next to me. I felt my cheeks flush as his hand casually rested on the small of my back.


End file.
